MELAKA: A 37-year-old driver of a car allegedly veered off road and plunged into "River of Babylon" in Batu Berendam here in a bid to avoid collision with an oncoming car.

Melaka Tengah OCPD Asst Comm Christopher Patit said the incident occurred at 4.20pm on Tuesday (July 19) and the footage of the incident had gone viral on social media.

He said the car driver, a businessman, was trying to avoid another car while reaching a narrow stretch along the river that is an alternative road from Batu Berendam to Taman Kerjasama in Bukit Beruang before plunging into Sungai Nibong.

ACP Christopher Patit said the driver escaped unhurt when he swam to safer ground.

He added that the weather was fine at the time of the incident.

"The incident is now being investigated under the Malaysian Road Traffic Rule," he said on Wednesday (July 20).

Sungai Nibong is popularly known as "River of Babylon" among the locals as the waterway was once a leisure point for villagers in the 1960s and 1970s before the surrounding area was developed as an industrial area.

The river got its moniker from the village elder in the 1970s after vocal group -Boney M popularised the song "By the River of Babylon".

In October 2019, a former Hang Tuah Jaya Municipal Council (MPHTJ) councillor Khamisdzee Ibrahim warned that the narrow road running parallel to the river posed a high risk to motorists especially during the night.

He said the riverbank was only inches away from the road and vehicles could plunge into the waterway.

The road connecting Batu Berendam to Bukit Beruang is an alternative for motorists to beat the traffic jam.